Webber Flips out of Valencia Grand Prix
Main Events On the 27th June 2010, Mark Webber was looking forward to a great race when it all went wrong... Saturday In third practise, the day prior to the race, Mark Webber was performing well and putting in great lap times and overall came a very respectable third. Mark Webber was high on confidence and was looking forward to qualifying where he put in an amazing lap and just lost out to his teammate Sebastian Vettel and got second position. Sunday Mark Webber was really looking forward to the race knowing that if he won the race then he would be winning the championship. When Webber arrived at the grid he never considered that it could all go wrong, but was hoping within the first 10 laps, or before the first pit stop occured he could get past his teammate and stay there until the end of the race. Unfortunately, this did not happen. The lights went out and immediately, even before the first corner, Webber knew he was in trouble when within half a lap he had gone from second to seventh. After eight laps all was going about averagely, and Webber pitted from seventh. The pit stop went well, and then he was off, just behind Heikki Kovaleinen, who he thought would be a breeze to pass. He was wrong. The Crash Webber was behind Kovaleinen going up the first of a few big straights doing 190mph when he made his move. He and the other driver were travelling up the middle of the straight when Webber tried to move left and take Kovaleinen up the inside. Unfortunately, because Kovaleinen is a Lotus driver he needs to break earlier than the Red Bull, and Webber had forgotten this, so as the Lotus moved over to the left, to get the racing line and Webber saw this as a chance to overtake. Webber moved slightly to the right to get past Kovaleinen when the Lotus had to brake. Webber failed to hit his brakes and smashed into the rear of Kovaleinen taking of his own front wing and the lotus' rear one. Kovaleinen was sent into a skid and calmly slowed down and tried to contine with the race. This was not the case with Webber. He was sent into a wild 190mph back flip, his car tilted and landed sideways on. He skidded down the rest of the track and onto the rest of the spare track. By now Webber had been shoved onto his two barely reaining wheels. He smashed into the barrier, still doing 150mph. Aftermath After the crash spectators looked on, wondering whether Webber would move. He did, and not just move but throw out his steering wheel in anger and climbed out looking dissappointed. He climbed into the safety car without a scratch on him. Webber's Complaints Webber claims that Heikki moved over too much to "defend his position" even though Kovaleinen only moved over a small amount and was only moving over to get the racing line. Webber also said that Kovaleinen could have given more warning before braking and that "they were both to blame" as he could have not got up so close to the Lotus. Our Thoughts We believe that it was almost entirely Webbers fault as he could have backed off a bit, made his move later, or not pressured Kovaleinen. We are just glad that no major injuries resulted from the accident with only shock and a few minor scrapes to deal with. Good luck for Silverstone Mark. Category:Valencia 2010